Distributed Normativity in Theology: On the Relevance of Empirical Research Approaches to Systematic Theology

Abstract

Empirical research methods have traditionally been absent from and are still foreigners to systematic theology. However, the turn toward practices in academic studies of religion and theology implies that empirical research methodologies cannot be deemed irrelevant to systematic theology. This article explores Hanna Reichel’s theory of theology as design, focusing on the understanding of theology as practice and the potential implications regarding the relevance of empirical methods to systematic theology. Bringing Reichel’s concept of theology as design into dialogue with Geir Afdal’s concept of distributed normativity, this article makes the case that the question of the affordances of a theological interpretation is not only an imperative theological one but also an empirical one, calling for empirical research methods.